The Minister for European Integration, Vlora Çitaku writes in her column that the most frequent question addressed to her, is “when will liberalization of visas for EU happen.” She explains that she had to answer on the same question at the Center for European Policies in Brussels, and that as usual, she answered that “we cannot speak about the dates, since this is a responsibility of EU institutions, and that there are three procedural actions that proceed entering into power of the decision for liberalization of visas.”
According to Çitaku, the initial step concerns organizing of assessment missions lead by European Commission with experts from Schengen zone member states, which would assess the reached progress. Then, based on the assessment reports, the European Commission, decides whether Kosovo institutions have fulfilled the criteria for visa liberalization in a satisfactory manner, and recommend this to the EU Council and EU Parliament.
Until then, she says, we are obliged to implement continuously all the criteria, which are also a benefit for Kosovo citizens. Çitaku further mentions the criteria such as help on repatriation of citizens, management of border and migration in accordance to EU laws, rule of law, war against corruption and organized crime, respect of human rights, freedom of movement etc.
According to her, one of the main challenges for Kosovo is irregular migration, which is a regional phenomenon, that represent a serious threat on revoking visa liberalization. Çitaku says that institutions have been engaged in the campaign to raise awareness on fighting criminal groups which smuggle people, and appeals on citizens not to migrate illegally.
